Meet the CHASS Director of Diversity Programs

Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi has been named the college’s director of diversity programs and faculty/staff diversity. In this role, Nfah-Abbenyi enhances the college’s leadership position on the campus by encouraging and supporting scholarship on critical diversity issues. She also works within the college to enhance and increase diversity among faculty and staff.

Her responsibilities include oversight of CHASS diversity programs and initiatives; developing collaborative, interdisciplinary research focused on diversity issues among faculty; identifying and supporting nominees for diversity awards; acting as our college’s affirmative action officer for faculty and staff; and developing various reports related to diversity.

Nfah-Abbenyi works with the college’s staff diversity coordinator, Joe Johnson, whose primary objective is to enhance the recruitment, retention, and graduation of a diverse student body.

In her academic life, she is Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the Department of English. Her teaching areas include graduate and undergraduate courses in African literature, postcolonial literature, world literature, women’s and gender studies, as well as seminars on African War Narratives, Feminist Theory, Third World Feminisms, and Postcolonial Theory.

Nfah-Abbenyi is a graduate of the University of Yaounde, Cameroon (BA, MA, Doctorat) and McGill University, Canada (Ph.D.). Before coming to North Carolina State University in 2006, she spent eleven years at the University of Southern Mississippi and one year in Minnesota as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Color at St. Cloud State University. Read more about her at http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/faculty_staff/jmphd.